Nick Carnes joined the faculty at the Sanford School in July 2011. He is a political scientist whose research focuses on American politics, economic and social class inequality, political representation, legislative decision making, and urban politics.

Carnes is currently working on a book that examines how the shortage of people from working-class backgrounds in American legislatures skews the policymaking process towards outcomes that are more in line with the upper class's economic interests. He is also beginning a large-scale investigation of the factors that discourage working-class citizens from holding political office and the programs that could help to address longstanding inequalities in the class composition of American policymaking institutions.